in memory of Reetika Vazirani (1962-2003) and Rachel Wetzsteon (1967-2009) Sewanee, Tennessee. Summer of '96, I went there for booze and poetry and rest. I danced a little dance; I talked a little shop. I forgot a recent ghost. "Invitation to a Ghost" was my favorite poem in Tennessee
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Tennessee
A native of Mufreesboro and state poet laureate since 1995, Margaret Britton Vaughn's literary accomplishments are widespread. She has published numerous books of poetry, penned the official bicentennial poem of Tennessee, and she wrote the official poem for the Tennessee state quarter,“Mr. Tennessee Music Man.”
recent & featured listings
type |
name | state |
|---|---|---|
| Radio Program | Everyday Poetry | Tennessee |
| Festival | Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word | Tennessee |
| Reading Series | Southbound: Southern Lit Alliance | Tennessee |
| Reading Series | River City Writers Series | Tennessee |
| Colony | Tennessee Young Writers' Workshop | Tennessee |
| Writing Program | University of Tennessee, Chattanooga | Tennessee |
| Writing Program | University of Tennessee, Knoxville | Tennessee |
| Writing Program | Vanderbilt University | Tennessee |
| Writing Program | University of Memphis | Tennessee |
| Writing Program | Middle Tennessee State University Writer's Loft | Tennessee |
poems
poem
2012
poem
2003
Flashing in the grass; the mouth of a spider clung
to the dark of it: the legs of the spider
held the tucked wings close,
held the abdomen still in the midst of calling
with thrusts of phosphorescent light--
When I am tired of being human, I try to remember
the two stuck together like burrs. I poem
2010
Curious to see caverns, we detoured in Tennessee to ramble through Fat Man's Misery, past a ballroom and gun powder machine till we reached The World's Second Largest Underground Lake— on which my husband had promised a ride in a glass-bottom boat. There, a kid hunched over a hot-rod magazine. Dan, I think his
